I arrived in London on Sunday night. Feeling hungry, I left Paddington Station and walked down Praed Street towards Marylebone. This being the big city and all, the McDonalds and other fast food restaurants were all quite crowded. I continued on past, not wanting to wait in line after such a long flight. 15 minutes later, I found myself at the Edgeware Road tube station, standing in front of a police barrier with piles of flowers in front of it.

 

I know this area fairly well. There is a Marks & Spencer right next to one of the entrances to Edgeware, and I have shopped there a couple of times and generally explored the area. In fact, I've been in all of the bombing locations except Aldgate. Of course, the explosion was underground so there was nothing to see (except a large police presence and the now familiar white cloth barriers in front of the station). But it made me think of my relationship to all those places that had been bombed.

 

Last month, after having a bad hotel experience at your basic London two-star hotel, I decided to stay in a chain. I found a Holiday Inn with an acceptable rate - the Holiday Inn King's Cross. All that week I commuted from King's Cross to Marylebone. The second morning of that commute, there was a problem with the trains at King's Cross, and all the lines were shut down (this happens frequently in London). So I went topside and tried to hail a cab. Yeah, right. So then I looked at the bus schedule and found a bus that ran to Baker Street station which is near the office. It wasn't the #30 bus, it was the 206, I believe. And at any rate, the bomber who blew up the bus caught it in the other direction. Nevertheless, it does make you think.

 

I remember my first trip to New York after 9/11. It was easily more than a year later, and I still had a heart-stopping moment when I saw the skyline without the World Trade Center towers. I'd never explored that area in all my trips to New York City and yet I still felt a shock at seeing such a different skyline.

 

It's very different, though, in London. There is no real visible damage and yet the event has left a deep impression on me. I think Londoners are a bit more stoic about it because they have a learned behavior around this sort of calamity. The first time I visited London as a teenager, the IRA exploded a bomb that killed a few people and a bunch of horses in the Queen's guard.

 

But I can also tell you that from what I'm hearing, reports of the mood and situation in London as told in the United States are decidedly off the mark. I think the US media is projecting an American reaction on Londoners. Further complicating this perception was the unexplainable order from the US chain of command that prohibited travel by US service men and women from Lakenheath and Mildenhall to any point inside the M25 - the highway that runs around central London. The anger of the British was palpable. The resolution of the British to stand by America after 9/11 is being eaten away. First, by a common perception that Tony Blair prostituted himself by joining the United States in invading Iraq (excuse me, I meant to say liberating). But then, at a time when the people and the culture are trying to make a stand and say that terrorism will not prevail and the British will carry on, the US tells its soldiers not to go to London because it might be too dangerous (the ban has since been lifted).

 

But all that stuff came to an end today at 12:00PM GMT. The entire city of London stopped for two minutes of silence. I was in our Chilton Street office. Like many other offices, everyone filed out down to ground level and stood out on the street. Traffic stopped. The city went quiet. An incredibly moving and powerful tribute to the character of this city. I'm really glad I was here to be a part of it.